8.01.2012

the house next door to us is uninhabited and overgrown with flowers, blackberries, and lavender. what luck for us! we have been scavenging the yard like nobody's business. and what i am about to tell you will change your life forever. you will be tap dancing and syrup guzzling and thanking me for the rest of your sweet sweet days. ok, here it is. you can make lavender simple syrup and put it on everything. it is easy and heavenly and smells your whole house up like heaven and you're just going to eat the crud out of it. it is THAT GOOD. yes!

first, find a partner in crime. make sure he's dressed really shady so if the cops show up they'll know at a glance which one of you was the mastermind behind the yard thievery.

next, assemble 3 tablespoons of the lavender flowers. i found that 2-3 stems equals a tablespoon so in order to get 3 tablespoons you'll want roughly 8 stems. we cut many more than that which meant we ended up with a batch of lavender syrup and a nice table centerpiece.

you can strip the stems of flowers by pinching the flowery tip and sliding your fingers down the stem. they come right off.

next boil 1 cup of water with the 3 tablespoons of lavender flowers.

once it boils, add 2 cups of sugar and reduce to a simmer. stir as it simmers for the next 5 minutes.

remove from heat. strain out the flowers. a tea strainer would have been handy. or cheesecloth maybe? i just used the big spoon you see there to get the bulk of it, then the tablespoon to ladle out most of the rest. a few stragglers were left in mine which doesn't bother me, but to each his own.

and what you are left with is a fragrant, delicious simple syrup that's just right for ice cream, yogurt, teas, waffles, toast, cocktails, homemade soda, lavender milk, or whatever else strikes you. we did ice cream.

this lady joined us. i love her so much.

yum!

i had one lavender drizzled ice cream bowl with Otto and then another immediately after he went to bed. i am jazzed up on lavender syrup right now! it is so amazingly delicious! and was so easy to make! i found the recipe here and look forward to trying the honeyed version as well sometime soon except maybe with agave instead of honey.

this keeps for about 1 week refrigerated. that is all the time i need to eat through it!

i will make this recipe again and again for the rest of my life. it is that good. really! i hope you give it a try too!